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Grabba grabs global market opportunity as Symbol abandons Palm OS

01 December, 2006 11:44

<p>In Brief: The recent decision by Symbol Technologies to formally abandon their long association with Palm OS for their popular hand held devices has opened a multi million dollar global market opportunity for Brisbane based Grabba International whose products use Palm Treo Smart Phones and Palm PDAs. The Grabba product range, 75% of which is already exported, mostly to the USA, includes attachable Barcode Scanners, Smartcard Readers, RFID Readers, Magnetic Stripe Readers and Combination Readers. CEO Frank Downes Predicts Rapid Worldwide Growth in demand for mobile applications in Retail, Health, Transportation, Construction, Logistics, Real Estate and Homeland Security Markets.</p><p>For more information contact CEO Frank Downes on 07 3344 6599; Terry Quinn 0439 710 418 or go to www.grabba.com</p><p>In Detail:PRESS RELEASE: Brisbane: Friday December 1:</p><p>The decision by Symbol Technologies to discontinue their long association with Palm OS has opened an international multi million dollar opportunity for Brisbane based Grabba International to fill the gap and supply former Symbol customers with “tens of thousands of units.”</p><p>Symbol Technologies recently announced that it has decided to discontinue its two Palm OS-based devices worldwide, bowing to European Union environmental regulations and a growing demand for Windows Mobile devices. Symbol has already stopped selling the products in Europe after giving customers a six month warning. While currently Symbol has no Palm-based products in its future road map, that could change, a company spokesperson said. "A lot of people like Palm so that's why I don't think we've closed the door," he said.The fact that Symbol admitted that “a lot of people like Palm” presented Grabba with a huge global opportunity according to CEO Frank Downes.“Already we have been approached by many large companies currently happy with their Palm-OS devices who want to change over to Grabba from Symbol,” Mr. Downes said.“Just as one example, a multi national duty free perfume company is negotiating to change 600 units from Symbol to Grabba so they can stay with Palm.”“This is not just because they are happy with Palm – it is also because they have invested a considerable amount in staff training and don’t want to have to re-train their people all over the world,” he said.Grabba International Pty Ltd is a fast growing technology corporation which develops, manufactures and markets an international range of hand held “value add” tools that extends the mobile computing power available in a wide range of PDA and Smart Phone hand held devices.</p><p>The Grabba range, 75% of which is exported, include Barcode Scanners, Smartcard Readers, RFID Readers, Magnetic Stripe Readers and Combination Readers.</p><p>According to CEO Frank Downes, Grabba recently extended its product range to include the Palm® Treo 700p and 700w smartphones.</p><p>“The Grabba T-2200a Linear Barcode Scanner for Palm® Treo provides a powerful, fast, solid state linear imaging barcode scanner that opens new opportunities for Palm® smartphones.</p><p>“The Treo 650 or 700w slides snugly into the Grabba housing, turning the combination into an extremely powerful enterprise tool increasingly used in a wide variety of sectors from retail and health to military and homeland security.</p><p>“Our expanding relationship with Palm means that we can step into the gap left by Symbol,” he said</p><p>About The Palm® Treo™ 650 smartphone makes it easier than ever to stay connected. It simplifies your life by combining a compact, full-featured mobile phone with email2, including AOL, Gmail and Yahoo!, an organizer, messaging, and web access2. All of which is within easy reach using the Treo 650 smartphone's finger-friendly QWERTY keyboard. There's also Bluetooth® technology for connecting wirelessly to other Bluetooth devices such as headsets and car kits.ABOUT GRABBA:Grabba International Pty Ltd headquarters are at 2 Henley Street, Coopers Plains, Qld 4108, Australia. Grabba CEO Frank Downes Predicts Rapid Worldwide Growth in demand for SmartCard Readers, Barcode Scanners, RFID and Magnetic Stripe Readers for use in mobile applications in Retail, Health, Transportation, Construction, Logistics, Real Estate and Homeland Security Markets. The extensive Grabba product range, 75% of which is exported, mostly to the USA, includes attachable Barcode Scanners, Smartcard Readers, RFID Readers, Magnetic Stripe Readers and Combination Readers for most of the HP, IPAQ range of PDAs and Smart Phones as well as for all Palm Treo Smart Phones and Palm PDAs and also for Dell PDAs. Grabba has offices in Burbank California supporting several Business Development Managers in the USA, an office in Epsom, Surrey, UK supporting a Business Development Manager for Western Europe and a Support Centre in Singapore supporting a Business Development Manager for North and South East Asia customers. Grabba also has a Distributor in Hamburg Germany See www.grabba.com</p>

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